St. Louis remembers 70th Anniversary of D-Day

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ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) - The St. Louis Science Center pulled out all the stops to honor D-Day veterans on the 70th anniversary of the World War II military operation. Jeeps from that war rolled onto the grounds of the Science Center early Friday morning.

Veterans from D-Day were on hand. They are in their nineties now but back then they were barely grown men. D-Day Veteran Ralph Goldsticker remembered, “Our pilot was 22 our co-pilot 20 I was 22 most of the gunners were 19.”

Members of the Military Vehicle Preservation Association brought the military vehicles. They shared the past with the present. Mike Green is a member of the association, “For history and so people can understand and know what happened during World War II and how many people died.
100 American flags were put in place, the same ones that decorated Art hill commemorating the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

Re-enactors arrived dressed in original and recreated uniforms from seven decades ago.
Clem Igel was a Tech Sgt. When he landed on Omaha beach, it was a day of death and horrible injuries. A day he’ll never forget. He will also always remember a few days before that when General Eisenhower and his staff gathered soldiers together to explain the military operation.

Igel said, “They say we expect at least 50 percent casualties, now I’m 19 years old and he tells me look at the guy next to you, either you or he are not coming back, isn’t that a hell of thing to tell a kid.”

If you want to learn more about D-Day the St. Louis Science Center is showing the film D-Day Normandy 1944 in the Omnimax Theater through the middle of December.